st: tabout function

I would like to use the 'tabout' fiunction with dates. My problem is that
the result from the tabout function shows a table with the numerical values
of mrec rather than actual dates. If I use the statement 'tab mrec
site_order_code2', it shows the mrec variable as a month e.g. Jan 2006. How
can I do this using the tabout function.
1) Part of my code looks something like this:
gen mrec=emrd_dinsert
label var mrec "Month of recruitment"
label val mrec month
format mrec %tmm_cY
label var site_order_code site2
encode site_order_code, generate(site_order_code2)
tabout mrec site_order_code2 if casetype == "Reg_&_Rand" using "abc.xls"
2) Describe mrec shows the following:
. describe mrec
storage display value
variable name type format label variable label
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
mrec float %tmm_cY month Month of recruitment
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